Good morning, everyone. A really good morning! Where were you when you heard the news? We were walking back from the farmerโs market, when the phones in our pockets started buzzing like crazy. We FaceTimed Phoebe in college, then called Abby, who was driving home from practice. We instructed her to lay on the horn the whole way home. It was 70 degrees, the blue, cloudless sky presenting a dramatic backdrop for all the golden and red-leaf November trees. We cracked open that Pappy! We donated to Stacy Abramsโs Fair Fight. We checked in with everyone we knew, like we had just had a baby. That is actually what it felt like. My brother texted back โIt really feels like someone pulled a nail out of my brain.โ
Later, my oldest friend Jeni and her husband, Ben, drove up from the city for champagne and chili around our fire pit, and they showed us videos of New York losing its collective mind. We ate cheese, guacamole, and two roasted vegetable dips (sweet potato-tahini, beet-yogurt-horseradish) and served with baguette slices. They brought iconic, absurdly indulgent Levain cookies up from the city, and we spent a solid ten minutes debating whether the chocolate peanut butter was better than the oatmeal raisin. We drank a lot of champagne and completely forgot to watch Biden and Harris (KAMALA!!!!) deliver their victory speeches.
I know that nothing is over, and that this country faces an uphill battle, given how divided we are right now. I know there are people reading this swearing they will never come back to my dinner table again. But for one weekend, it felt hopeful that a big piece of the puzzle, the person whose instinct was to stoke hatred and divisiveness, would be rendered powerless. Wow does that feel good.
This week, in the interest of realigning everyoneโs equilibrium (I still canโt get a good nightโs sleep) Iโm going to post a bunch of my favorite easy dinners, some familiar โ like this chicken that Bon Appetitโs instagram reminded me of yesterday โ and some new. Iโll probably get back to the Project-Pantry-Purpose series, too, because the winter promises to be hard, and I feel like weโre going to have to pull together again in a big way. I hope youโll come to the table as always.
We did it, Jenny!!!! It feels so, so good! We spent the beautiful Saturday afternoon at Black Lives Matter Plaza here in D.C., where everyone whooped it up (i think the party is still going on!). We then sipped champagne on the sidewalk with the entire block! Finished the night with kabobs from our favorite middle eastern takeout (immigrants!!!). We still have work to do (if you can, consider giving to FairFight.com to keep it going in Georgia). For now, though, it feels incredible!
Jenny,
I applaud this post, especially your brotherโs comment. I was so prepared for he-who-must-not-be-named to win that I spent most of Saturday in shock. Ultimately, it was essential that decency win if only for the future of our children.
Thank you!
Kelly Belden Fisher
God, please have mercy on this nation. We need you now more than ever. Darkness is upon this nation I love.
I was coping with the stress by folding laundry and watching โThe Queenโs Gambit.โ My 9-year-old son raced downstairs and told me Biden won and we both cried happy tears! That evening I enjoyed wine by the firepit and FaceTimed all of my friends. Cheers, America! I slept like a baby that night.
Sitting in my living room and my husband was in the other room and called out to tell me. I put on the television and immediately started crying! I was able to celebrate with my immediate family (husband and kids), and a few select family members. But not the rest. Living on Long Island โ Biden voters are in the minority โ at least here in Nassau County the difference wasnโt as great between the two as in Suffolk County. And I will keep coming back to your table!
Oh I will not be leaving! Happy to support your efforts and generosity. The bright spot in this pandemic was Pantry Project. I am sticking around ; there is so much to celebrate!
It totally felt like we just had a baby, except we were shouting to everybody in the streets as well to rejoice in the news.
I love your blog and appreciate how vocal you have been about your political views. It feels like a treaty was signed to end WW3, but there is so much work to be done to get this country back on track.
Thanks for your recipes and your inspirations. Looking forward to more PPP as we hunker down for a long, dark winter.
Still celebrating!! Woo hoo!
A nail pulled out of the brainโฆ yes! I have felt so much BETTER since Saturday. Double redemption: on Saturday night I re-made a chocolate lava cake recipe that didnโt turn out the first time. This time they were delicious. I know our country wonโt be so easy to fix, but itโs a start!
Double Victory! What recipe were you using, Iโve always wanted to try that.
SO MUCH JOY!!!!!!!! I finally feel like I can breathe again after 4 years.
Weโre in the UK & have been glued to the election coverage all week, I think the whole world has heaved a sigh of relief. Congratulations to the US for making the right choice, itโs a shame you canโt come over here & sort out our shambles of a government!! X
Thank you for your voice & your familyโs engagement in our country & its politics! Much celebrating here in MN too! My eyes make โleakโ every time I watch Kamala speak for quite some time! Now how to better unite this country behind decency & progressโฆ
may not make
We drank champagne and I cried with joy listening to Kamala. A big, snotty, weeping cry. I surprised myself. I had been waiting for that moment for longer than I knew. Cheers from the other coast!
I was on my way to the grocery store. As I was checking out, the cashier asked how I was, and I told her that I was great! Then, I broke down crying as I explained that the networks had called the election and that my tears were tears of joy and relief.
I emailed, but I want to write this publicly as wellโthank you for being vocal about your political engagement over this year, and thank you for encouraging your readers to engage as well. We were at the playground on Saturday when suddenly we heard clapping and cheering, and then honking, and then bells and drums and more cheering and clapping and honking. I am so incredibly grateful I was WITH PEOPLE for that moment, especially in a year when we havenโt been able to be in physical community very much. After the initial joyous shouting, I started crying. I practice immigration law, and these past four years have been truly awful. Then in the evening my immigrant mother-in-law brought champagne over for dinner, and I made her favorite American apple pie, and we let the kids stay up late to watch the speeches. My 2-year-old daughter kept saying, whenever the cameras cut away to honking cars or cheering crowds, โThey are all glad! They are all glad!โ We were all glad, too.
We were running errands, and my phone was in the middle of an update, so I left it at home. I asked my husband for his phone, checked CNN and saw the news! I had to wear my sunglasses while we did our errands, because I kept on crying, and I didnโt want anyone to think I was upset instead of happy!
Love this post, love the comments above, and just want to add a little report from Utah, where there were 8th graders celebrating via texts, fireworks set off in the middle of the day, and hooting and hollering all around my particular neighborhood. Jenny, thanks for inspiring me to get more actively involved โ I donโt know that it helped (letters to Texas, texts to uncommitted voters here?!?) but it felt important to *do* something and it feels even more important to continue to be engaged. Thank you!
@Jennifer, thank you for your letters and texts. It helped! Being engaged, being involved, encouraging other folks to engage and voteโฆ.this is the essential work! Your actions in this election (and hopefully continually going forward) help to build a culture of active democracy.
It absolutely helped โ every single thing helped.
Confirmed โ you people are ignorant.
I was so happy. I cried and cried. I just would never have survived the next four (4) years. Iโm so afraid of what could happen in the next election. Iโm going to start cooking and drinking and live happily in my little bubble while I can.
Please just stick to food and avoid adding in your political affiliations. Cooking is something many of us due to relax. I look to this site for food only, and wonโt be clicking it again if I see anymore political lamenting. Thanks in advance.
Guess what? Food, like all of life, is political. If you donโt like it, no one will miss you here.
John wants to speak to the manager of this blog because heโs sad that the views of the writer donโt align with his! He would like a refund for the zero dollars he spent on the well-written and researched content that the author provides. Kick rocks, John
Guess what? Youโre not paying her and this is her site so she can write about what is meaningful to her and her family. Quit bullying and threatening! Buh bye!
Dear John: It truly does make sense that you should read and comment about the recipes and food related posts and avoid commenting about your displeasure relating to the bloggerโs political commentary. If you note a post relates to a non-food post, you merely need to refrain from reading that post. Sincerely, A reader who enjoys food and ancillary commentary posts
Thank you I could not agree more! We celebrated with a fine rib-eye and shrimp scampi! It was a huge sigh of relief and gotta say I am sleeping much better knowing that there will be two people who deeply care about the people of these United Statesโฆ
Cheers!
Jenny, I agree with you 1000%, but even if I didnโt โ itโs your blog, your voice, and if people arenโt happy with the messaging, they can go elsewhere.
THANK G-D for the results. Still SO MUCH WORK to be done, but thank goodness.
Thank you for writing this!! I can guarantee that the two guys having a problem with this post are likely white men who havenโt had a challenge with this administration. I truly appreciate your words.
Such a joyous post for such a joyous time! I saw the news โ 7 months pregnant with my first child (a daughter, due just after inauguration day!) โ jumped up from the couch and switched to Fox just to make sure it was called across the board. Cue the tears! I canโt scroll through instagram without crying, canโt see a post from Kamala without crying, am just a weepy, happy mess. I hadnโt slept in weeks and chalked it up to pregnancy nerves, aches and pains, but Saturday night I slept for 10 straight hours. What relief!
What a great post and clearly embodies what the mood was this entire weekend! I cannot tell you the last time that I felt the level of joy and hope that I felt on Saturday and it was like the entire landscape of everything felt differently instantly. We did this!!!
What a wonderful weekend, indeed!! Jenny, I appreciate that youโve shared your views this election cycle. In normal times, I donโt think the way someone votes would influence whether or not I continue to visit their site and engage with them. However, these are not normal times and Trump is not a normal candidate. Thank you for being vocal in your support of integrity and equity. Among the millions of reasons Iโm overjoyed this week is that I can continue in good conscience to keep Toddโs minty pea dip, the pork ragu, and your avgolemono in our rotation!!